Mountain Stage Song of the Week

On this West Virginia Morning, during the teacher strike a couple of weeks ago, educators were asking for two main things: a pay raise, and a fix for the public employees health insurance program -- PEIA. While the program’s finance board ultimately agreed to freeze proposed changes that would have increased insurance costs, truly fixing PEIA in the long term might not be that simple. Kara Lofton takes a look at the rising cost of health care nationally and some of the other factors that affect the state employee healthcare program.

On this West Virginia Morning, the West Virginia House of Delegates moved swiftly Wednesday night to pass a new 5 percent pay raise package for teachers, service personnel and state police – acting on a revised revenue forecast from Gov. Jim Justice.

That bill made its way to the Senate yesterday Thursday but was not taken up in committee. On last night’s episode of The Legislature Today, host Andrea Lannom chatted with Senate Minority Leader Roman Prezioso about the situation at the statehouse.

On this West Virginia Morning, all 55 West Virginia county school systems were closed yesterday and continue to be closed today, because of a two-day work stoppage over teacher salaries and Public Employee Insurance Agency costs. Reporter Dave Mistich breaks all the issues down for us.

On this West Virginia Morning, The Legislature Today Executive Producer Suzanne Higgins speaks with the director of the Oscar-nominated film Heroin(e) and two women featured in it. We bring you an excerpt with one of those women: Patricia Keller, family court and former longtime drug court judge, who discusses the work she’s doing in Huntington to fight the opioid epidemic.

On this week's encore Mountain Stage broadcast, critically-acclaimed "one-man orchestra of the imagination" Andrew Bird stops by with a set full of acoustic roots-pop (not to mention some A+ whistling).

On this West Virginia Morning, we conclude our series Appalachia Innovators with a story about an entrepreneur from Ohio County who has dedicated his professional life to re-imagining and retooling old materials in the region with new technologies. Glynis Board reports.

On this week's encore broadcast of Mountain Stage, West Virginia super pickers Johnny Staats & Robert Shafer return with a new self-released record in tow titled Music from the Mountains, featuring this upbeat performance titled "El Cumbanchero."

Piers Faccini is an English singer-songwriter with Anglo-Italian and Jewish roots who currently resides in Southern France. His music is just as storied as his past, blending folk, acoustic blues, and West African textures into his sound. For his Mountain Stage debut, he performs an even more colorful rendition of "Cloak of Blue" during this week's broadcast.

On this West Virginia Morning, The Legislature Today host Andrea Lannom speaks with Barry Cook, director of the West Virginia Division of Forestry to talk about a controversial bill that would open many state parks to logging.

On this West Virginia Morning, President Donald Trump has helped put the national spotlight on the Ohio Valley’s opioid crisis. But his record of action on the issue is mixed. As part of the series, One Year, Under Trump, Ohio Valley ReSource reporter Aaron Payne reports that public health officials in the region say they need more funding to back up the president’s promises.

Once part of the Grammy-winning duo The Civil Wars, Southern folk musician John Paul White returns to the Mountain Stage to perform cuts from his new solo release Beulah, including the atmospheric lament "Once and Future Queen."

On this West Virginia Morning, West Virginia Public Broadcasting added a new reporter to its news team this week. Molly Born will be in Williamson, covering the southern West Virginia and Kentucky coalfields. Molly’s position is one of three in the region made possible through a partnership with the Charleston Gazette-Mail, the Lexington Herald-Leader and the GroundTruth Project’s Report for America initiative.

Spellbinding folk with a captivating voice. It would only make sense for such a performance by Aoife O'Donovan to be titled "Magic Hour," one of the many songs we'll preview on this week's Mountain Stage broadcast.

Somewhere between experimental folk and traditional Appalachian you'll find Asheville-based band River Whyless, an up-and-coming indie act making their Mountain Stage debut on this week's broadcast (which includes this trip-loopy performance of "All Day All Night").

On this West Virginia Morning, we hear an Inside Appalachia preview. In honor of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, which begins Dec. 12, this weekend’s episode of Inside Appalachia explores stories of Jewish-Appalachians.

On this West Virginia Morning, coal miners were some of President Trump’s staunchest supporters in the 2016 election. He promised to bring back jobs in the industry, and that promise is tantalizing to some in coal country.

Reporting for StateImpact Pennsylvania, The Allegheny Front’s Reid Frazier found coal miners who are sticking with the industry, instead of looking for a new career.

In a 20-year recording career that began when he was just 16, Louisiana born guitarist and songwriter Kenny Wayne Shepherd has become one of the most recognizable players in all of rock music. The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band appears on this week's Mountain Stage with songs from their latest release "Lay It On Down," including "Diamonds & Gold," heard here.

On this West Virginia Morning, we have a preview of this week's Inside Appalachia episode, in which we learn more about a four-part series by Us and Them about gun violence, race and urban revitalization in West Virginia.

Inside Appalachia’s Jessica Lilly sat down with Trey Kay, the host of Us and Them, to talk about Charleston’s West Side -- the poorest neighborhood in the city.

On this West Virginia Morning, yesterday, President Trump’s administration declared a public health emergency to deal with the opioid epidemic.

On this week’s episode of Inside Appalachia, host Jessica Lilly speaks with Dr. Petros Levounis, professor and chairman of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. Dr. Levounis, who’s published a number of studies about the opioid crisis. Levounis says it was a “catastrophic medical mistake” that “opened the door to liberal prescribing of narcotics that essentially got people hooked”.

On this West Virginia Morning, this year’s West Virginia Filmmaker of the Year is a Pittsburgh native who hails these days from the Morgantown area.

Here at West Virginia Public Broadcasting, we know Larry Dowling as a production manager -- but he’s also a videographer, lighting designer, grip, gaffer, director, and just about any other role you could think of on a film set. Inside Appalachia’s host, Jessica Lilly spoke with Larry after he won the award.

On this West Virginia Morning, as the number of coal mining jobs continues to decline in central Appalachia, hemp is getting a lot of attention as one way to diversify eastern Kentucky’s post-coal economy. But the region’s growing hemp industry is riddled with uncertainty.

The lack of land suitable for growing hemp and its association with marijuana pose significant challenges. Rachel Cramer, from our partners at WGBH and The GroundTruth Project, has that story.

On this West Virginia Morning, 87-year-old Jim Shaffer has had his hands busy since 1946. He is the last commercial broom-maker left in West Virginia. On Saturday, Sept. 30, a short film about Shaffer will be screened at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The event is free and open to the public.

State folklorist Emily Hilliard teamed up with Inside Appalachia earlier this year to produce the story, as part of a collaboration between West Virginia Public Broadcasting and the West Virginia Folklife Program.

On this West Virginia Morning, geologic studies indicate West Virginia is the largest geothermal hotspot on the East Coast. So why don’t we hear more about it? Liz McCormick reports, some counties in West Virginia have been pushing the envelope for a future in geothermal energy use.